Philippians 2 | Embracing Christ-like Humility in a Divided World

What does Philippians 2 teach about Jesus' humility?
How does Philippians 2 define Christian unity?
Who were Timothy and Epaphroditus, and why are they important in Philippians 2?
What is the meaning of "kenosis" in Philippians 2?

Philippians 2 offers a profound reflection on the humility, sacrifice, and divinity of Jesus Christ, urging believers to adopt the same mindset of selflessness and unity. Paul uses this chapter to encourage the Philippian church to remain steadfast, unified, and caring for one another, using Christ’s example of humility as their ultimate guide. He praises the church for their obedience and commitment to the gospel, both in his presence and absence, and highlights the importance of serving others above oneself as a hallmark of Christian character.

The chapter also underscores the critical theological doctrine of Christ’s divinity, explaining how Jesus, although equal with God, did not cling to His status but chose to take on human form and endure the cross for humanity's redemption. This act of self-emptying, or “kenosis,” is central to Christian faith and serves as the model for how believers should live and relate to one another. Paul emphasizes that the unity of believers is grounded in their shared understanding of who Jesus is and what He accomplished through His life, death, and resurrection.

Furthermore, Paul highlights the exemplary roles of Timothy and Epaphroditus, who faithfully serve the church and carry messages between congregations, demonstrating commitment and genuine concern for the welfare of others. These individuals are portrayed not just as messengers but as vital contributors to the early church’s mission, embodying the qualities Paul encourages all believers to adopt: humility, dedication, and a servant's heart.

Paul also urges the Philippian believers to do all things without grumbling or disputing, thereby being blameless and innocent in a crooked and twisted generation. By shining as lights in the world and holding fast to the word of life, they reflect Christ's character and bring glory to God. He calls for the church to continue in their obedience, reassuring them that God is at work in them, both to will and to work for His good pleasure, encouraging them to maintain their joyful commitment to the gospel.

Ultimately, Philippians 2 is a call to embody Christ-like humility, unity, and love in the Christian community. It is both an encouragement and a challenge to believers to reflect the mind of Christ, serve others selfles

Transcript

 Philippians 2

Philippians 2

[00:00:00] Hey everyone, welcome to God's Plan, your part, year two, where this year we're reading through and studying the entire New Testament one chapter at a time. Thanks again for joining us in discovering God's plan and your part in it. Today, we are jumping into Philippians chapter two. Uh, it is a very, uh, Powerful portion of the Bible.

So this is an incredible day to make sure that you read the passage for yourself. God's word is always more important than anything I could say, or anything Jenny could say. Uh, so go read Philippians 2 for yourself or catch the recording that we did at the end of this episode. Uh, there's a powerful passage because it speaks to who Jesus is, what Jesus did during his ministry on the earth and what Jesus continues to do for us all in the context of trying to appreciate and thank this Philippian group of believers, uh, that essentially Paul's trying to write this missionary support letter to, to thank them for the ways that they have supported him and encourage them to be united in caring for each [00:01:00] other and, and how Jesus is the ultimate example of that.

I love Philippians too. Yeah, it actually has a lot of, like Ryan was saying, a lot of encouragement and like encouragement to continue on with what they are doing. Uh, like we've said before, this letter seems a little bit more soft than some of his other letters in that it is more encouragement and reminding them of the mission, but also like just keep it up, keep up the good work.

Um, I do also appreciate this a little bit more now because I think in the past I've always read this. being sent as something, um, that Timothy just did for Paul because of his Age or frailty, but it's because he's in prison. So Timothy plays like a pretty critical role in being this like messenger to the Philippian people as well.

And the relationship between the two of like both Paul and Timothy is pretty critical. For this message of encouragement to be sent in the first place, I would say he talks about Epaphroditus as [00:02:00] well. And Epaphroditus is part of that mission as well. Epaphroditus was, um, a big part of the letter to the Colossians.

I believe he was actually involved a lot more in that congregation in Colossae, which we'll get to that letter in a minute, but you can see him, Paul talking about how he uses these messengers that are definitely more than messengers. They're just, they're people that he is training up to be effective.

Pastors, uh, but you can see how he uses them while he's in prison. They run these letters back and forth. Uh, they help to equip these congregations as they go back and forth, uh, and they report to, you know, the Philippian church, what's going on with Paul and to Paul, what's going on with the Philippian church.

So they're a valuable part of his ministry. And what's cool, too, is Paul is actually, like we said, he's in prison, he's suffering, um, in this physical way, I guess in the spiritual way, too. He could easily just write off this group of people as like, okay, they're, they know what they're doing, they know what they're up to, but he takes the time to encourage them to keep pressing on, which is really significant, um, because he does still care for the church, whether they're making, like, yeah, great choices or not.

Yeah. Um, [00:03:00] he's taking the time to do this. So you really appreciated the beginning of the chapter. I think I did too. There's a lot of things in here, uh, but he is reflecting back to who Christ is and how they are mirroring, mirroring it and ways that they can, can continue to do so, um, throughout the letter.

There's a little bit of echoes of Ephesians chapter four. Um, if you're tracking with us live on the podcast, like we've. We went over this just probably like a week or so ago. Um, but the Ephesian church, he was trying to like actually kind of confront because they were becoming divided. And in Ephesians four, he uses that language.

Like there's, there's one Lord, one spirit, one baptism, like one, one, one, one, one. And he wrote these letters around the same time. So it's not as strong, Philippian church, but you can see him, uh, in verse two, complete my joy by being of the same mind again. One mind, essentially having the same love, one love, being in full accord with one mind.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility [00:04:00] count others as more significant than yourselves. Uh, let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. So he's encouraging the Philippian believers like, Hey, Care for each other, and it was a hallmark of the early Christian church that they did authentically really care well for each other when they were healthy.

We've, we've dealt with plenty of churches at this point that were having conflict and problems, but the early church believers were known for caring well for each other first and out of that care for each other, caring for essentially like out Casts and downcast people. They, they were really well known for adopting a lot of, uh, babies and children that would have been just cast out completely.

Uh, and, and a lot of the Romans that were not believers, um, oftentimes knew they weren't supposed to like Christians, but also knew that Christians. Cared really well for each other and it was kind of confusing to them. So, um, you can see him encouraging them to care for each other and, and [00:05:00] he expects that this gets carried through.

Well, what's really cool after that, right, like right after the verses you just read, he refers back to Jesus who ultimately, um, showed the greatest humility in that although he is God, he didn't, He didn't need to be recognized as that so much so that he put himself into human form, sent his son to die for us.

Um, and so it's just reflecting back to that same idea of you guys need to do the same thing. Like think about others. Over yourselves and like be willing to, to sacrifice for each other. Um, because that is the example that Christ has portrayed by emptying himself as a servant in the likeness of man. So this is a critical passage, uh, for our doctrine and theology.

If you don't like those words, please don't go to sleep on me, but. Pay attention, um, Philippians two is critical to how we know Jesus and what we know about Jesus and what we believe about Jesus. [00:06:00] And Paul oftentimes is telling these churches, you cannot be unified if you do not share the same doctrine.

So that's why he, this is actually like a kind of hymn. It's recognized as a, as a hymn from Paul about the glory of Jesus. Jesus. Um, but that doctrine is essential because we need to start from the same place that is believing the same things so that we can actually care for each other. And, and one of the really powerful things that he shows here, which we've seen in other passages, but it's important to point it out here.

Um, he says, have this mind in yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. He's speaking to Jesus who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped. This is significant, um, because this was written around early 60 AD. And this is a really early written Christian account of the fact that Jesus was, in fact, in the form of God.

Now, that does not mean that he is different from God. It means that he shares all the same stuff of God. And so, this is Paul saying that Jesus was God. God, he existed [00:07:00] before, like before he was born, he had this pre existence. He was with God in eternity, continues to exist with God in eternity. Uh, he did not come into being when, when he was born, but he existed eternally.

And this is a big deal one, because we believe this, this is critical to Christian thought, but two, because there is a. a pretty popular false teaching out there, um, that Jesus was not God and Jesus was just a very good person. And he is a great example to follow, uh, but calling him God is a little bit of a leap.

And a lot of times what people will try to do is say, Hey, you can just, just reading the gospels, you can see that Mark, which has written around 50, uh, give or take, uh, Mark did not explicitly say that Jesus was God. And then you wait until you get to John. John was written probably like 90 ish, maybe after that.

They, the Christians developed this myth that Jesus was God. This can be easily debunked, um, because here are Paul's writing in early 60 AD. This is a very early Christian writing saying that Jesus was in [00:08:00] fact God. Not only was he God he willingly gave up the, the, His sense of power and authority, not because he lacked it, but because he chose to not use it.

Uh, the Greek word for that is kenosis. If you want extra credit, um, it just means that even though Jesus was God, he chose not to use the power that was available to him because he wanted to die on our behalves willingly. And this is very important to us as believers. It was important to the Philippian believers.

It remains important to us today. So after he gives the example of Jesus, I think it's really cool that he goes into, I guess it's almost like praising them. Oh yeah. For the, like, the steadfastness that they've had, uh, within their, like, their growth as a church in Philippi. So. Verses 12 essentially to 18, um, he is telling them like it's high praise.

Like, I feel like if you get this from Paul, it's like, you must be doing something right. But he starts out, uh, therefore my beloved, as you've always [00:09:00] obeyed. So now not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

So he's saying like, you've been true. Um, not only while I'm there, but also in my absence. Um, and I think that actually, I guess for that time, seeing the letters that we've already seen that speaks volumes to the, um, like I said earlier, like the steadfastness to what God has called them to. And I think he's essentially saying like, continue to be this light to the people around you.

And if there are things that come up, he goes through like a list of things, grumbling, disputes. Um, Yeah. Make sure that you're like children of God without blemish. That's what verse 15 says. Uh, because it's so easy to like fall to our humanity and I guess just like fall into exactly what the world would do, but he's reminding them like, you've been so steadfast, don't give up, [00:10:00] keep pushing ahead, um, and don't fall into what the rest of the world does when they come into these temptations.

It's powerful. It would now. And. This, the end of the passages is talking about Timothy and Epaphroditus, which I think we've kind of touched on. Like it just shows how Paul's using these messengers. Uh, but you can see the compliments that Paul's giving to this church. He's saying like, Hey, work together, be together, serve each other.

Well, don't have disputes. Don't grumble. Don't complain. If there are disputes, like bring them to completion, solve them, get them worked out, uh, because we want to bring honor and glory to the church. To Christ. I think this is a super powerful passage. I, I hesitate to say it cause I've been saying it so much.

It was one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. Um, because it, it one teaches us a lot about Jesus, but two, it doesn't stop there. It teaches us like how to apply this to our lives. And I think if I can, I don't know. I don't know if you have much more. That you want to throw in. Well, I was just going to say, it just seems like he, he's almost saying like, I'm really proud to have been meeting you.

I'm proud to have been like the one [00:11:00] serving over you and with you. I think it's, it's kind of cool. It's like a proud dad moment. And you can feel that this is a guy that is sort of aware that he's coming close to the end. He, I mean, I don't think he explicitly says that he's close to the end. I do think he talks about that in Second Timothy later on.

Um, but. He's aware that there's going to be a time when he's not around anymore, and he's trying to raise up leaders, and he's trying to raise up churches that care well for each other, and some people listened, and some people did not. We see that from the character of all these different letters. Um, so, so to close this out with your part, I, I think this is a powerful chapter that speaks to, uh, The need for all of us, uh, to care well for each other, but even more than just care well for each other, to, to willingly set aside our own interests on behalf of the interests of others.

And let me tell you something like that is very hard to do because any time you give up your own self interest, like. I would say you feel all your own insecurities, but I do [00:12:00] think too, like, like Satan attacks us because we, he doesn't want us to serve each other well because it hurts our Christian witness.

And a lot of times I know when I'm, when I think through these kinds of things, like you get that, I don't know, like hesitation or voice in your head. That's like, well, if you do that, like, then this is going to happen to you. Then this is going to happen to you. You're going to lose all this, you're going to lose all this.

You worked so hard for it and it's all going to be gone. Or you start to attack the other person. Like, well, I would give this up for them, but I don't, I don't trust them. I don't think they'll honor it. I don't think they'll care. It's, that's not what we're called to do. And we have a powerful example in Jesus in that he did not do that.

He, we do see glimpses of him really wrestling with that. Like he's praying in the garden of Gethsemane, literally crying and sweating blood, um, Like just overwhelmed with the fact that he doesn't want to give up his life and yet he continues forward and gives up his life. We should willingly care well for each other and we should be willing to give up our own [00:13:00] interests in the interest of others.

And he is, it's worth noting, Paul is specifically talking to believers, encouraging them to serve God. Other believers. So like we, the idea is that we have this shared belief, this shared doctrine, this same commitment to honor Christ. And when you do know that you're working with people that want to honor Christ, it is actually easier to yield to them and, and trust them and care for them.

And that is what we're called to do as a church. Unfortunately, there's so many power struggles and I don't, I don't know, like, political games that can happen when we, when, when we take our eyes off of Jesus. Um, but I think when we're at our best, we honor Jesus by yielding to others and building others up over and above ourselves.

So I think, I guess I can maybe add to a little bit of your part there is like, let's strive to be this church where, um, Uh, we are reflective of Jesus. We are reflective of his complete and ultimate willingness to be a sacrifice, to give himself up in that way. Um, and ultimately I would, I [00:14:00] would love for Paul to be like, proud of my church.

Like we are doing these things. We're reflecting so well that he's like, keep up the good work. Don't give up. Like admit when you're wrong, make those choices, just like strive for unity. So hopefully we all have that desire. Just to throw it on top of this, like when you strive for unity, it does build trust.

So there are like these trying times where it's like, man, I could, I could yield and care for people, or I could really, you know, look out for myself. And a lot of times you can convince yourself that it's wise to look out for yourself. Uh, but the more that you yield, well, it does say that it does say that in that look, not only to your own interests.

Yeah. But also, like, so unity is not just about you, it's about the interests of others as well. So it, it is both, but you can't have yours or mine. Always over someone else. And the more that you, um, consciously yield for the good of everyone, the more you build trust, the easier it is to make decisions together, the easier it is to honor Christ.[00:15:00]

So I hope that's true of your individual church, like the actual place where you attend. And if you don't, we encourage you to attend somewhere. Uh, but I also hope that it becomes true of this corporate. Big C church. We've talked before about how there's so much division and so many differences. Uh, let, let's just all continue to pray for unity among the body of Christ.

Uh, it's a huge Testament to who he is and what he's done for us. And it's the way that we glorify him in our world. So we'll be back again tomorrow with Philippians chapter three. We'll see you then. Thanks for listening to today's episode. Before we get to the reading, I want to recommend another podcast that I'm a part of called God's whole story.

This year, we're releasing one episode a week on Monday mornings, overviewing one book of the Bible each week. So God's plan. Your part is a deep dive chapter by chapter where God's whole story is taking it one book at a time. If you enjoy this podcast, you'll enjoy that one. Go check it out. Now here's the reading.

Philippians chapter 2 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, [00:16:00] any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men.

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the [00:17:00] earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, Not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights Transcripts in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise, you also should be glad and rejoice with me. I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. For I have no one like him.

Amen. [00:18:00] who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know Timothy's proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served me in the gospel. I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me. And I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also.

I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and your minister to my need. For he has been longing for you all, and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. Indeed, he was ill, near to death, but God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

I am all the more eager to send him therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. So, receive him in the Lord with all joy and honor such men, for he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what [00:19:00] was lacking in your service to me. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of God's Plan, Your Part.

Don't forget you can find us on just about every social media platform. And YouTube. Let us know what you thought of today's episode and if you have any questions, go ahead and post them there. You can also reach out to us directly at God's plan, your part@gmail.com. As always, if you don't have a Bible or if you'd like to use the one that we use, uh, reach out to us via email and we'll be happy to send one to you.

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